Recent celebrity suicides have shaken the news cycle and led to the standard discussions and pretend introspection that we all conduct after such an event. Yet, the CDC tells us that suicide rates are increasing by a factor that they struggle to explain. In other words, the more we talk about it, the more it happens. Why?

Could it be the same lowering of the threshold of acceptability? could it be the way we react to suicide which is less critique and more celebration? What is the message our next generations are getting?

And what exactly are we supposed to do to prevent it? Clearly the whole “Talk to somebody/seek help” campaign is failing…

Google has announced that they will no longer accept Political Advertising in the State of Washington. Supposedly this is because of the lawsuit filed by the Washington State Attorney General against Google (and Facebook) over “transparency” as to who is paying for the ads. More and more, this is going to become the norm. And while on the surface it seems that knowing who pays for an ad is a good thing, the real question is whether or not those organizations that pretty much live on the dollars generated by political advertising can survive.

A US Navy SEAL was killed last week. In Somalia. Again, I am not opposed to “The War on Terror.” I am opposed to the idea that we continue to commit ourselves and our treasure to an ongoing conflict with no strategic goal, no plan beyond body counts, and no national debate or Declaration of War by Congress. What is there in Somalia that was or remains worth a single US life?